'Color Purple' cancelled tonight

The Thursday-night performance of the “The Color Purple,” recently opened at the Mercury Theater, has been cancelled. The official word from theater owner L. Walter Stearns is that two musicians are ill, with no musician understudies available.

The musical, with an Equity cast of 16, opened Monday at the 300-seat Mercury to mostly positive reviews, including a three-star review from Chris Jones in the Tribune. But there may be an additional reason for the night off – low ticket sales. A call to the box office Thursday afternoon said no tickets were being sold for Thursday night, and the show had been cancelled because of low attendance in advance of the Labor Day weekend.

THEATER REVIEW: "The Color Purple" at the Mercury Theater ★★★ ... There's a thrilling wall of harmonic sound from a mostly Equity company of African-American actors that flows out in great emotional waves in the first made-in-Chicago production of Alice Walker's "The Color...

Two cross-dressing men who were fired upon by National Security Agency police when they disobeyed orders at a heavily guarded gate had just stolen a car from a man who had picked them up and checked into a motel, police said Tuesday.

You don't have to look far these days to find stories about the rising costs of prescription drugs. By one count, drug spending jumped 13 percent last year, the highest annual increase in more than a decade. And health insurers have spent the better part of the past year warning anyone who'll...

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence asked lawmakers Tuesday to send him a clarification of the state's new religious-freedom law later this week, while Arkansas legislators passed a similar measure, despite criticism that it is a thinly disguised attempt to permit discrimination against gays.

The upcoming NFL draft is going to offer strong options at the running back position through at least the middle rounds but that isn’t stopping the Chicago Bears from adding some depth at the position.